My Ruin
A Prayer Under Pressure of Violent Anguish
Spitfire
The Brits absolutely love her, but us Yankees, bar a devoted few, have yet to warm up to diminutive metal-monger Tarrie B and her main gig, My Ruin. And it’s a big surprise and shame, really, because self-help metal of this weighty a variety has been MIA since Lollapalooza-era Rollins Band: doom-on-adrenaline riffs that lurch to n’ fro, those lumbering rhythms picking up the pace well and often, a vaguely jump-jump hip-hopped flava to it all, and in Tarrie B’s vocal attack, a primal scream therapy that manages to be tuneful every so often. It’s no wonder, then, that My Ruin’s second and latest long-player, A Prayer Under Pressure of Violent Anguish, is more concise and focused than the Speak And Destroy debut, ‘cuz it’s purportedly the first full “band effort,” B subsequently securing a stable lineup sans hired hands. It’s a corker, for sure, and could yet endear itself to the nu-metal set, if given the proper push, due to its overwhelming heavyosity yet decidedly hip air, one that consciously evades the denim n’ leather ethos of outright “true” metal. And, hey, B even has the, um, balls to cover Nick Cave’s “Do You Love Me?” here, doing a bang-up job of it, and far better than Metallica’s stab at “Loverman.” (What, you can only cover Cave songs off Let Love In? Nonetheless, The Black League are reportedly covering Tender Prey’s “City Of Refuge” for an upcoming EP.) To the public at large, the face of modern metal now has a feminine guise.
Spitfire Records, 101 Bay Ave., Hicksville, NY 11801; http://www.spitfirerecords.com; http://www.myruin.com
